Biography

Rui Lopes holds a PhD in International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History. He has taught at LSE and at Goldsmiths, University of London. He focuses his research on culture in the Cold War, as well as on the international dimension of the Estado Novo and Portuguese colonialism, having published the book “West Germany and the Portuguese Dictatorship, 1968–1974: Between Cold War and Colonialism” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and various scientific articles.

He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Práticas da História: Journal on Theory, Historiography and Uses of the Past and the coordinator of the project “Amílcar Cabral, from Political History to Politics of Memory“. Under the program FCT Researcher, he is currently researching the image of Portugal in Western audiovisual fiction during the Salazar dictatorship.

Research fields

• Cinema
• Colonialism
• Estado Novo
• Cold War

Selected publications

• Lopes, Rui. “An Oasis in Europe: Hollywood Depictions of Portugal during the Second World War ,” Journal of Contemporary History 52 (2017): 375-398. [PDF]
• Lopes, Rui. “‘A fabulous speck on the Earth’s surface’: Depictions of Colonial Macao in 1950s’ Hollywood,” Portuguese Studies 32 (2016): 72-87. [link]
• Lopes, Rui. “Accommodating and Confronting the Portuguese Dictatorship within NATO, 1970–4,” The International History Review 38 (2016): 505-526. [link]
• Lopes, Rui. West Germany and the Portuguese Dictatorship, 1968–1974. Between Cold War and Colonialism. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014. [link]

Highlighted projects

• Coordinator of the project “A ditadura e colonialismo portugueses na ficção audiovisual ocidental, 1933-1974” [Portuguese dictatorship and colonialism in western audiovisual fiction, 1933-1974] — Hosted by the IHC and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT Researcher).
• Coordinator of the project “Amílcar Cabral, from Political History to Politics of Memory” — Hosted by the IHC and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/EPH-HIS/6964/2014). [link]